Battle Lines Stiffen as Senators Read FBI File on Tower

Partisan battle lines stiffened Monday as senators of both parties huddled behind closed doors to read a top-secret report detailing the private and professional life of President Bush’s nominee for defense secretary, former Sen. John Tower.

While several previously uncommitted Republicans declared their support for Tower, no Democrats had yet yielded to efforts by the White House to generate the necessary bipartisan support for the controversial nominee. Without at least five Democratic votes, the nomination will be defeated by the Senate--giving Bush the first big setback of his presidency.

Several Republicans expressed skepticism that Bush could save the nomination, which is expected to come up for a vote on the Senate floor later this week.

“Nobody can understand why George Bush is letting this happen,” said Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), a Tower supporter. “This is sort of like the question, ‘Why did he pick Dan Quayle?’ I guess George is just new at this.”

And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been one of Tower’s strongest defenders, indicated that he is no longer optimistic that the Senate would confirm the nomination. He summed up his gloomy view of the situation with a quote he attributed to former Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung: “It’s always darkest before it is totally black.”

The defeat of Tower would be a symbolic “body blow” for the new President and would delay many important defense decisions facing the Bush Administration, according to McCain. “I think it would signal the end of the honeymoon.”

Returning to the White House on Monday night from a trip to the Far East, Bush indicated he had no intention of giving up the fight to confirm Tower, even though his advisers acknowledged the outlook was bleak. “I haven’t wavered one iota,” he declared.

Bush plans to begin his own lobbying campaign today. He has invited Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) to discuss the Tower nomination over breakfast and has also scheduled meetings with 12 conservative Democrats in an effort to sway them.

Much of the White House lobbying effort was to be directed at Mitchell and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), the former vice presidential nominee whose stature in his party would certainly sway other Democrats if he were to throw his support to Tower, an old Texas crony. Neither Bentsen nor Mitchell had committed himself by Monday.

Many of the uncommitted Democrats were clearly in a quandary--torn between their loyalty to fellow Democrats and their longtime friendship with the former Republican senator. “We’re all going through hell,” said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

Extreme Pressure

Wavering Republicans such as Sens. Larry Pressler of South Dakota, Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and William L. Armstrong of Colorado were also under extreme pressure from the White House to get behind the President.

Meanwhile, many members of the Senate were taking advantage of the opportunity to read the FBI’s much-discussed, voluminous report detailing allegations of drunkenness, womanizing and conflict of interest against Tower.

The report confirms excessive alcohol use by Tower but cites indications that he greatly reduced his alcoholic consumption after 1983, according to a source who has read the document. Many of the stories provided by witnesses could not be corroborated.

For example, the source said, the report repeats an eyewitness account of an incident in which Tower was believed to be drunk on an airplane. Four or five flight attendants told the FBI that they could not remember it and the witness failed a lie detector test.

Nunn Summary

In addition to the report, senators were given a summary of the allegations against Tower prepared by Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), whose Senate Armed Services Committee had voted 11 to 9 on strict party lines last week to reject the nomination. Nunn contends that Tower’s history of excessive drinking disqualifies him from serving in such a sensitive position.

Copies of the report were available to senators in Room 407, a highly secure, lead-lined room directly under the Capitol dome where members of Congress traditionally go to discuss national security secrets. No senator was permitted to take the report out of the room.

So many senators were seeking to read the report, in fact, that there were not enough copies to go around by the time Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) showed up at Room 407 at mid-morning on Monday. He said he was forced to wait while additional copies were made.

Insufficient Evidence

It took Gramm, a speed-reader, about 1 1/2 hours to peruse those parts of the report dealing with alleged alcohol abuse. He concluded from what he read that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Tower is unqualified to serve as secretary of defense.

Likewise, after two hours of reading the report, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) decided he would probably vote for Tower, even though many of his conservative allies outside of Congress have spoken out against the former senator. “I’ll continue to read,” Helms said. “If I don’t find anything more than I’ve found so far, I’m going to support him.”

Not all senators were eager to read the report, however. Durenberger, previously uncommitted, said he had decided to support Tower to show solidarity with the new Republican President. Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) said he was content to follow the judgment of GOP colleagues on the Armed Services Committee.

Pledge Criticized

Tower supporters applauded the nominee’s announcement on Sunday that he would abstain from alcoholic beverages if he becomes defense secretary, but critics viewed the pledge as akin to a death-bed conversion that soon would be forgotten.

“I work on the assumption that you take folks as you find them, not as they intend to be,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.). Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), a former newspaper editor, said he had heard many reporters and composing room personnel make similar pledges over the years without much success.

McCain acknowledged that the pledge did not improve Tower’s support in the Senate. “I think it came across well--he didn’t come across as a drunk,” he said. “But it’s questionable if it will help. It has become a partisan issue.”

Even if Tower’s pledge did not win him any more supporters, it reassured many conservative Republicans who already had spoken out on his behalf. “John Tower is a man of his word and if he says he won’t drink, he won’t drink,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a Mormon who abstains from alcohol.

Bitterness Seen

Some Republicans confessed to being very angry about the Democrats’ criticism of Bush’s nominee. “There’s a lot of bitterness about this,” said Gramm. “A lot of people feel that Sen. Tower has gotten a raw deal.”

Tower received some encouragement from an unusual source Monday, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, (D-Ill.), who sent him a note, saying: “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

Democrats clearly expected the President to withdraw the Tower nomination if he fails to line up enough Democratic votes in the Senate, where Democrats have a 55-45 margin. But a White House adviser who declined to be identified said Bush would suffer more political damage by withdrawing the nomination than by allowing the Senate to defeat it on a party-line vote.

Mitchell has scheduled floor debate on the Tower nomination to begin on Wednesday, but Administration officials were known to be seeking to persuade the majority leader to delay it to give the President more time to lobby senators.

Vote on Dodd’s Father

A principal target of the Bush lobbying effort was Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). Some Republicans believe Dodd owes a debt to Tower, one of five senators who voted to oppose Senate censure of his father, former Sen. Thomas Dodd, 22 years ago. The elder Dodd was reprimanded for using political funds for his personal benefit.

While Dodd announced Monday that he has not yet decided how he would vote on the nomination, he insisted that Tower’s support of his father would not figure into his thinking on this nomination.

“Of course, I won’t forget how John Tower voted,” he told a news conference in Hartford, Conn. “What kind of son would I be if I did? I won’t vote for John Tower because of the vote he cast 22 years ago regarding my father’s censure. But I certainly won’t vote against him because there’s a herd mentality.”